Exodus 90 and other random thoughts

• St. Thomas Beckett, pray for us. 

Saint Thomas Becket, Bishop and Martyr - 29 December, from the Raccolta

• St Thomas of Canterbury, son of Gilbert Becket, was born in Southwark, England, in 1117. When a youth he was attached to the household of Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, who sent him to Paris and Bologna to study law. He became Archdeacon of Canterbury, then Lord High Chancellor of England; and in 1160, when Archbishop Theobald died, the king insisted on the consecration of St. Thomas in his stead. St. Thomas refused, warning the king that from that hour their friendship would be broken. In the end he yielded, and was consecrated. The conflict at once broke out; St. Thomas resisted the royal customs, which violated the liberties of the Church and the laws of the realm. After six years of contention, partly spent in. exile, St. Thomas, with full foresight of martyrdom before him, returned as a good shepherd to his Church. On the 29th of December, 1170, just as vespers were beginning, four knights broke into the cathedral, crying: “Where is the archbishop? where is the traitor?” The monks fled, and St. Thomas might easily have escaped. But he advanced, saying: “Here I am—no traitor, but archbishop. What seek you?” “Your life,” they cried. “Gladly do I give it,” was the reply; and bowing his head, the invincible martyr was hacked and hewn till his soul went to God. Six months later Henry II. submitted to be publicly scourged at the Saint’s shrine, and restored to the Church her full rights.

  Reflection.—"Learn from St. Thomas,“ says Father Faber, “to fight the good fight even to the shedding of blood, or, to what men find harder, the shedding of their good name by pouring it out to waste on the earth.”

  
  
  
  
• Hey married guys. If you decide to do Exodus 90 remember that it is your spiritual mortification and not your family's. So no snarling at the kids for listening to music while you have a caffeine withdrawal headache and no glaring at your wife because she's having pie. If you are so grumpy that you make your wife and family miserable then what have you really done for yourself or the Church? 

• Do you remember how Cardinal Bernadin asked that the Gay Men's Chorus sing at his funeral? Many of the people who questioned what that meant were told to shut up. I imagine that when Cardinal Newman requested that the grave of  Fr. Ambrose St. John, whom he called his "earthly light" be opened up so that he could be buried in the same grave with him, some people were shocked and there may have been whispers. Those people were probably told to hush and not give any scandal in front of the Protestants. Cardinal Newman's request is still giving ammunition to the Church's snickering enemies. He never should have been canonized. 
  
  
  
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• Beware priests who have female fan clubs. Beware of priests who Tweet or blog endlessly about video games, movies, food, or anything and everything BUT the Faith.
  
  
  
  
  

Merry Christmas

 My husband is home from work. I've finally heard from my Tennessee relatives and now Rocky and I are happily eating bacon sandwiches and listening to the greatest Christmas album of all time, 

Pavarotti at Notre Dame, Montreal.

 

Merry Christmas

 

Hollywood was never our friend

 We watch old movies and TV shows almost exclusively. I've known that Hollywood kept pushing perversion for decades and were only kept in check by the Church but I'm seeing how Hollywood executives managed to subtly manipulate the public even in the so called Golden Age of entertainment. It was often done with such a delicate touch that it must have taken a huge amount of rewriting and meetings to pull it off. 

Rocky was watching a nearly 60 year old Western TV show a few weeks ago  and suddenly I saw something that I never would have noticed as a child. The heroine owns a saloon (No, it's not Gunsmoke), but to my adult eyes it seemed more like a brothel with scantily clad "girls" living upstairs. The hero is the local sheriff and he and lady saloon owner have a relationship that will not end in marriage,  because the heroine likes her freedom and the sheriff doesn't want to be tied down or leave a widow in case he gets killed trying to clean up his very rough town. 

A local farm girl leaves her dreary, puritanical father and finds work and happiness in the saloon. Her widower father is broken hearted and shows up at the saloon demanding that his daughter return home. He is shocked to see that a cowboy is apparently sleeping in his daughter's room and he angrily tells the woman owner of the saloon that she is a sinner who has debauched his child. He comes back late that night with his shot gun and is prevented from killing the cowboy by the sheriff.

 It turns out that the girl is not a prostitute and she and the cowboy are married. The saloon is really just a saloon, (probably for the sake of the censors), and the scantily clad girls who work there just serve food and drinks and flirt but really don't do anything upstairs but sleep alone. The father is made a fool of and everyone laughs at him while he stands there looking embarrassed but relieved. That show very cleverly made the church going father look bad.  That was a poison in the subconscious of the young viewers. 

Another movie that I watched was even more overt. In this one a local woman is an adulteress who sees a murder as she returns from her off screen assignation with her lover. An innocent man is accused and is going to hang. He has one witness, a girl from the saloon who says she saw him going about his own business at the time of the murder and he had nothing to do with it. The innocent man's lawyer, who is the hero of the movie somehow finds out about the local wife and questions her in court. Desperate to save her marriage and not be humiliated in public, she perjures herself. The prosecutor jumps up and demands that the court can't possibly take the word of a harlot over that of  a respectable married woman. The innocent man's lawyer gets the married woman to confess and the innocent man is saved from the gallows. This movie was made in the late 40s or early 50s but it deliberately made the prostitute the truly good woman and denigrates the married lady. Hollywood was never our friend. 

We certainly do live in interesting times.

 As horrible as 2020 is and has been, there may come a day when we all look back on it as the calm before the storm and may even call it the good ole days. St. Januarius's blood did not liquefy today. The last three times it did not liquefy were in 1939, 1944, 1973, and 1980. Sooooo, yeah. Things can always get worse.

 

Life amongst the ruins and other random thoughts.

• If you still have a job, stock up now.  I'm not saying run around like your backside's on fire and  get 100 pounds of rice but there is no excuse for your children to go hungry because you didn't get an extra case of water or can of ravioli every time you go to the store now. Three million people claimed that they went hungry during the UK lockdowns. That's incredible. Come on folks, get some Spam. Get some Vienna sausages. Get a box of  macaroni or spaghetti and stick it in a big ole glass jar. Pick up a couple of packs of the cheapest ground beef and stick it in the freezer. Get some powdered milk. I know it's nasty but fresh milk won't last so unless you can find shelf stable milk, one can or box of powered milk  could really come in handy. You should be able to get through a month at least. 
  
  
  
  
• Child sex abuse and rape reports have doubled in Ireland since the lockdowns. Ireland, what the Hell is wrong with you? One study has shown that head trauma abuse of children in the UK has gone up by 1493%. Brits, what the Hell is wrong with you? I can't even fathom that number. It's also been reported that the number one cause of death of men there, age 50 and younger is suicide.  I haven't seen a study for this horror in the USA but police departments around the country say that child and woman beating and suicide among teens and young adults is up. We are being sorely pressed but violence and self destruction as answers to the crisis are not the right ones.  
  
  
  
  
• The governor of my state, during his press conference made a hostile remark to Christians who want to go to Church and he was not shouted down. To my knowledge  bishops of Virginia said nothing in response. 

• If you have someone in a nursing home read this. 

• Could somebody please go to Rome and knock over that foul Vatican nativity set?
  
  
  
  
• Every time I meet a young Latin American priest I find myself wondering what seminary he came from and if he was one of the seminarians who were brought in the USA via the McCarrick pipeline to be um....entertainment for Uncle Ted and his  brothers. 

random thoughts on a Saturday afternoon

• Please stop naming and posting photos of your parish or chapel with chirpy remarks that the Mass is conducted normally. You are just making it easy for busybodies to go there and make a complaint to law enforcement if they see someone without a mask. Protect your priest.
  
  
  
  
•  Rocky and I went to Richmond yesterday. It was incredibly depressing. Monument Avenue is hideously deformed with graffiti. The residents almost all have BLM signs in their windows in an attempt to protect themselves. The streets downtown are quiet. We could not enter our favorite Richmond restaurant but had to place our order over the phone and wait for them to bring it out to us. We ate at Belle Island park and watched college kids and birds.
  
  Later we went to Shockhoe Slip and that was just stunningly sad. Normally that area of Richmond is bustling with people but in the time of the Great Sickness we only saw a handful of folks walking with purpose and more homeless people than I've ever seen in Richmond before. On top of that, these homeless didn't have that drug addict look, nor did they look like con artists. They all looked seriously mentally ill. We only saw two men who were actively begging. The rest of the homeless were just sitting or walking seemingly unaware of the world around them. 
  
   At the end of the trip we went  through the drive through at Lees Chicken for dinner and it was such a relief to see lots of happy almost normal people in their cars. I thought about going to the FSSP church in Richmond but the last time we visited the people weren't friendly at all and since most folks are extra jittery right now I decided not to. 
  
  
  
  
• In order to comply with Virginia's rules my parish is requiring people to RSVP for Christmas Mass. I imagine that there will be some angry people who end up being turned away because the church won't be allowed to take walk-ins. Pray for everyone who will be involved. 
  
  
• This product is going to get somebody killed.  People are so freaked out and  many have lost their minds. One example of this  happened  last week when Rocky and I were going to get on an elevator but the woman who was on it panicked and backed up against the wall and yelled at us. 
  
  
  
• While you're donating to some lay apologist or instead of  doing that, why not help traditional nuns, monks and priests? Fr. Maximilian Mary of Jesus Crucified is a hermit in Pennsylvania. You can read his booklets and donate to him here.  
  
  
  
  
  
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• I listened to this podcast twice. 

Rethink Archbishop Sheen

 You know, I really don't think Archbishop Sheen should ever be canonized. He was a great showman before Vatican II but in his old age he either really lost the plot or maybe he was just a company man all along and he moved with whatever the company said at any given time. His canonization process was probably disrupted due to spite and other bad reasons but we may have dodged a bullet here. Saint Fulton might have  been as embarrassing as Saint John Paul II, Saint Paul VI and Saint John Newman may turn out to be. Let's wait a few more decades and let a future pope and committee who aren't star struck, coolly examine the evidence for or against a canonization. 

an apology

 Years ago there was a blogger whom I thought of as the prophet of doom and overly dramatic on top of that.  I made it a point to avoid reading her because I found her to be so depressing. Well, 2020, happened and you know what? Everything that blogger predicted has come horribly true. Our courts, our governors, our universities, media and public intellectuals-- everything about them that Etherelda said would come to pass; has. Rest in peace, ma'am. You were right. 

The McCarrick Report has been released. Does anybody smell sulfur?

 I thought making JPII a saint was a mistake. I thought it was too soon and that it, like the canonization of Cardinal John Newman would come back to bite us all one day. Well, now I think the canonization was sabotage and the bite has officially started. The McCarrick Report is out today. People who have read it say that it  blames JPII and his right hand man, Cardinal Dziwisz.

The report is said to be somewhere between 400 to 600 pages which will be grim reading I'm sure.  Blaming the dead rock star pope and an 81 year old man, who let's face it, is closer to the grave than the cradle, is a masterstroke. 

You see, if Saint John Paul II, who apparently never listened to anybody who tried to tell him that Bishop So-and-So was bad news, gave McCarrick his power then it calls into question JPII's sanctity or at least, his wisdom. A seed of doubt has been sowed. Since JPII was wrong about McCarrick, what else was he wrong about? Many people see JPII as their linchpin. Catholics of my generation looked up to him as the holiest pope since Pope St. Pius X.  Discredit JPII and those people are going to be shaken. If you've ever been exasperated after reading Hilary White's rage against JPII and Benedict XVI for not satisfying her father hunger then get ready for more of the same but from all kinds of people including some of your friends and family members. 

The McCarrick Report allows Francis to say, "Hey it wasn't me. My holy predecessor trusted McCarrick so why shouldn't I have? I was misled." I think most people are going to react to the McCarrick Report the same way their parents and grandparents did when the Novus Ordo was forced on them in 1968-1970. They will sit in the pews for an hour on Sunday and that's it or they'll stop coming to Mass or they will conclude that we've all been misled and they will apostatize. 

Salve Regina

 

Random thoughts--warning I'm grouchy today

•  Well, the kidney stone has passed...… I feel humble, sore and tired. 
  
  
  
  
• So, is our republic mortally wounded? If it is, how long before most people notice?  
  
  
  
  
  
• Everyday I'm seeing a LOT of Catholics talking about going Orthodox. For various and erroneous  reasons people are saying that if Francis is a valid pope then the whole Catholic Faith must be wrong. They can't bring themselves to go full on Protestant and don't see any point in going to the Episcopalian play house so the Orthodox seem like a lifeboat. The Orthodox have beautiful churches that look like a peek into Heaven. They have priests who consistently look like men in public. They do not mock the pious. It all looks good from a distance.  Well, I can only say that you can go to an Orthodox church but you will never be Greek, Russian, Armenian, etc. To most of the parishioners you will  always that Catholic who showed up late and Heaven help you if you open your mouth to make a suggestion about parish life.  Check out Orthodox Twitter or forums or blogs and see what the folks in the pews really think about you. It's not sweetness and light. 
  
  
  
  
• Louie Verrechio at AKA Catholic is on fire lately. If you've ever distrusted Taylor Marshall because the man's positions have changed so many times or you suspect that he's Opus Dei or if you have not forgotten the Fisher Moore episode then you should read this new series.

Fear Nothing

 

Go to Confession

You might want to make that General Confession as soon as possible. 

The grocery situation and other random thoughts

•  The pope said nary a word on camera about the three people being murdered in the basilica in Nice, France. We not only have a bad pope, we have one who doesn't care one jot or tittle about his flock. I expected no better from him but it would have been a nice surprise if he could have managed to say something about that or if he refuses to comment on Europe he could have a least sent a polite, diplomatic word of condolence to the Catholics in Chile who have seen their churches desecrated. 
  
  
  
  
  
• Costco is not  allowing delivery in my area today because they're just overwhelmed with shoppers right now. I know it's the first of the month but this is not even the normal crush of people. All the folks who didn't stock up in the last few months have just realized that there will probably be riots after the Election and trying to pick up some eggs downtown might be more of an adventure that most folks are prepared for. At my mother's Costco the toilet paper and  paper towels are sold out. I wanted to get her some shelf stable milk but her brand is running low. I'll try tomorrow but I think I'll  also zip by the Spanish grocery and see if I can find some Nido Fortificado milk or cans of Media Crema. 

Holy Face

 

LITANY OF THE HOLY FACE OF JESUS     I salute Thee, I adore Thee and I love Thee, O adorable Face of Jesus, my Beloved, noble Seal of the Divinity! Outraged anew by blasphemers. I offer Thee, through the heart of Thy blessed Mother, the worship of all the Angels and Saints, most humbly beseeching Thee to repair and renew in me and in all men Thy Image disfigured by sin.     O adorable Face which was adored, with profound respect, by Mary and Joseph when they saw Thee for the first time, have mercy on us.     O adorable Face which did ravish with joy, in the stable of Bethlehem, the Angels, the shepherds and the magi, have mercy on us.     O adorable Face which did transpierce with a dart of love in the Temple, the saintly old man Simeon and the prophetess Anna, have mercy on us.     O adorable Face which filled with admiration the Doctors of the law when Thou didst appear in the Temple at the age of twelve years, have mercy on us.     O adorable Face which possesses beauty always ancient and always new, have mercy...     O adorable Face which is the masterpiece of the Holy Ghost, in which the Eternal Father is well pleased, have mercy on us.     O adorable Face which is the ineffable mirror of the divine perfection, have mercy on us.     Adorable Face of Jesus which was so mercifully bowed down on the Cross, on the day of Thy Passion, for the salvation of the world! Once more today in pity bend down towards us poor sinners. Cast upon us a glance of compassion and give us Thy peace.

Halloween thoughts

Halloween isn't what it was when you and I were kids. It's become sleazy on one level and dangerous on another. Have you noticed the explosion of demonic activity in this country and around the world in the past few years alone? And isn't there something schizophrenic about dressing your child up as a demon  and sending him out to the neighbors and demanding candy? I know of people who turn their lights out and pretend to be out on Halloween because they don't want to participate but are afraid of "pranks" and becoming  unpopular in the neighborhood. 

 Why do grown people downplay it when  a "grouchy,", "humorless" neighbor's house is attacked with eggs or his yard is strewn with toilet paper on Halloween when these same people would scream and carry on if someone did that to them on any other night of the year? What kind of Catholic says something like, "Well I don't approve but Old Jim or Old Lady Jones  is so cantankerous and never does anything in the community so no wonder the kids did the kids pulled a prank,"? It's talk like that that made me seriously rethink modern Halloween.

In your charity could you say a prayer for my Cousin Pearl? Plus other random thoughts.

• My cousin Pearl just got out of lock down. She lives in a nursing home and one of the residents got sick. The other resident was taken to the hospital and was exposed to Covid. Upon returning to the nursing home some authority decided that all the residents had to be restricted to their rooms for 14 days. Family members normally go to the porch of the nursing home and wave to her and talk to her on the cell phone. For 14 days she couldn't even do that. She and all the residents were not allowed to walk around the nursing home.
  
  Another cousin went to see Pearl yesterday on the first day when the residents were let out of their rooms.  Pearl has lost weight and looks very unhappy to me. She's 93. Folks we don't treat murderers like this. 
  
  
  
  
• Thank the Lord. My next door neighbors have finally moved. They were so nasty that I used to see roaches walking in and out under their front door. I suspect that the children in the family were the ones who were drawing on the walls of the apartment building hallways. 
  
  
  
• Archbishop Wilton Gregory is going to be made a cardinal. Some people are shocked but really folks, it was already set in stone. Traditionally the head of DC will be made a cardinal eventually whether he was a good bishop, a good priest, or even a good man. Heck look at McCarrick and Wuerl. The DC diocese is polluted. 
  
  
  
  

If your cause leads you to threaten nuns then you have a cause that I'm pretty sure is demonic

So this is where we're at, America. A male, (he's not fit to be called a man), posted photos of nuns on Twitter and  is deliberately trying to cause harm to them and their order  because they went to the Trump rally. The whole point of "doxing" is to put people's personal information on the Web in order that other evil people will harass or perhaps even harm your victim.  This  individual would have been right at home with the kind of males who went after good women in Paris, the Vendee, Poland and Spain. 

Jordan Peterson is back and Louie Verrechio speaks plainly

 I just watched a video by a priest cheering because Dr. Jordan Peterson is back from his near death experience. I have a few questions but the main one is this:  Considering that Peterson did not practice what he preached and his personal life seems to have been a train wreck what advice can he give a young man? 

Oh rank and file Knights what to do now? Have Knight families been fooled? Is the KoC running a managed opposition campaign? Does anyone think that Fr. McGiveny would approve?